Cheshire Cat

EGL

Alice in Wonderland

Last Updated: 07-16-2006

I made this for an Wonderland themed EGL tea party a group of local cosplayers were throwing. Since I didn't have a lot of time or money to prepare, I decided to do the Cheshire Cat because I could use my Midnight Rose dress and wig as a base, and alter it from there.

To begin, I bought a couple of yards of black lace fabric, and several pairs of pink and purple socks I found at Target that matched the Cheshire Cat's coloring. I stuffed one sock for the tail, and sewed it onto the back of the dress. I made a big floppy bow out of black lace and sewed that on above the tail to make it look more like part of the outfit. I then cut the feet off of two more socks, and stuffed them to make the ears. I then pinned the ears onto the wig so that they stood upright, and hid the pins by tying black lace bows around the base of each. The rest of the other half of the footless socks severed as arm warmers. To round it out, I glued a pink gem onto a black ribbon for the collar, tied black bows onto my black platform shoes, threw on black tights and the last pair of socks, and did my cat makeup to complete the look.

Finally, to top it all off, I wanted a parasol. Unfortunately I didn't own one, so I poked around Target until I found a small purse-sized black umbrella with pink trim for a couple bucks. I actually got a discount on it because it was bent slightly in the back. When I got it home, I cut out each rain panel, and sewed black lace fabric onto the edging to create an instant parasol. For fun, I balled up the leftover sock and sewed it on top, and tied a pink bow around it. Meow.

This costume was very fun and comfy to wear, which was a good thing, considering it was about 90 degrees out the day of the tea party. Even though it was made really quickly, it came out very cute, and I think I'll wear it again before I dismantle it.